Orchestra III from Connections

The Orchestra series is, on the one hand, obviously non-representational: simple four-sided colored shapes float around one another in a tight orbit. Yet, on the other hand, it also represented something deeply personal and concrete for Anni. In her childhood, she and her sister frequented the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, taking special pleasure not only in donning their best clothes but also in hearing the opening tuning of the instruments. In was in those preparatory sounds that Anni perceived the combination of freedom and formalism that characterizes music.

The Orchestra series is a nostalgic meditation on these formative experiences. Its colored shapes are distilled to their primary hues, just as the orchestral tuning lays out the fundamental sound qualities of the instruments. And the black negative space, obtained through multiple layers of ink and tarnish, yields a velvety texture, evoking the ruffled finery and opulence of the theaters of her youth.